Public capital and productive efficiency in the Spanish regions (1964–89)

The article analyses the evolution of the differences in economic conditions among Spanish regions from the perspective provided by the recent advances made in economic growth empirics. Although convergence is usually established in terms of Gross Value Added (GVA) per capita, in the case of Spain it is of special interest to break it down into three separate elements: activity rate, employment rate, and productivity of labour. Regional differences in unemployment rates, which persist for long periods of time, are identified as a force against convergence. After describing the distinction between conditional and non conditional convergence, the paper considers the role played by the product…

Growth and convergence profiles in the Spanish provinces (1965-1997)

.  Economic performance in Spanish provinces has led to a considerable improvement in standard of living of their populations. Intense capital accumulation since the 1950s played a key roll in this process. Provincial inequalities may increase or decrease as a result of this growth pattern. This study analyzes the evolution of the disparities by means of distribution dynamics techniques. It explicitly considers economic size of each province and whether spatial spillovers exist. Results indicate that the convergence process has been especially intense for labor productivity, total factor productivity, and capital intensity, while for per capita income the patterns of convergence are less ma…

Estimation of the stock of capital in Spain

The paper presents the methodology and results of the estimation of the endowments of capital in the Spanish economy. It distinguishes between endowments of public capital and private capital. The series corresponding to the public sector cover the period 1955–97 and consider seven categories (or functions). The estimates are disaggregated by 17 regions and 50 provinces. The level of disaggregation is regional and provincial (NUTS2 and NUTS3 in European terminology). The private capital series cover the period 1964–97 and consider 17 sectors of production, with disaggregation at regional level. The information refers to two variables: gross formation of fixed capital (in current and constan…

Three (marginal?) questions regarding convergence

This paper focuses on three (marginal?) questions surrounding the analysis of economic convergence and uses Spanish provinces as a means of illustration. The three questions in hand are the following: (i) given that the geographical units of analysis are usually quite different in economic size, is the weighting of economic units relevant in convergence analysis? (ii) the average per capita income of a given region, or country, is the first moment in the distribution of income, but what about the second moment, inequality? Have we converged in inequality? and (iii) an aggregate welfare index must take into account, at least, the evolution of the first two moments of the distribution of inco…

Infrastructures and Productivity in the Spanish Regions

The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of public capital, the types of infrastructures in which it is invested, and their territorial distribution in the gains in productivity of the private sector in the Spanish regions in the period 1964-1991 using panel data techniques to control for unobserved state-specific characteristics. The results obtained show how the infrastructures most directly linked to the productive process present a significant and positive effect on productivity. They also show the importance of the network effect of the infrastructures of a productive nature as well as a decrease in the elasticity associated with such infrastructures as development progresses. El p…

The measurement of inequalities: Variables, indicators, and results

Drivers of Agglomeration: geography VS. History

This paper focuses on the influence of two classical drivers of population agglomeration: geography and history. Geography is identified by two co-ordinates: coastal position and altitude. The prominence of history is also captured by two characteristics: the initial size of the municipalities, and their status as the administrative centre of the area. In first instance we examine localization patterns, at a small geographical scale, according to these characteristics and present empirical evidence of the progressive population concentration along the coast, on the plains and in the regional (provincial) capitals; a process that has not finished in the present days. Next, we show that both …

ICT and Economic Growth

Using new sectoral data on investment and capital services we carry out a growth accounting exercise on Spain 1985-2002. We compute the contribution to output and labour productivity growth of employment, non-ICT and ICT capital, labour qualification and Total Factor Productivity. Results are given for 29 different branches; individually and grouped into four clusters according to their ICT use intensity. Three ICT assets (hardware, communications and software) are considered. We find that although the ICT intensive group appears to be the most dynamic cluster, most of the impact on productivity is still to come. There is some evidence of a reversal of the productivity slow down of the nine…

Spain: A Success Story Shadowed Only by a Poor Productivity Performance

Since joining the European Union in 1986, the performance of the Spanish economy has been quite remarkable, acting as a good example for new entrants of what can be accomplished in twenty years. Its ability to generate employment has been astonishing. Departing from an environment of very high unemployment (close to 25 per cent), Spain has become the country of destination most preferred by immigrants. However, it has also had a scant productivity performance. The main burden on productivity growth lies with the construction sector and almost all private service sectors with the unique exception of the financial sector. Most likely, over the next years, the continuity of the Spanish success…

Reseñas

The economic impact of migration: productivity analysis for Spain and the UK

Over the past 20 years labour has become increasingly mobile and whilst employment and earnings effects in host countries have been extensively analysed, the implications for firm and industry performance have received far less attention. This paper explores the direct economic consequences of immigration on host nations’ productivity performance at a sectoral level in two very different European countries, Spain and the UK. Whilst the UK has traditionally seen substantial immigration, for Spain the phenomenon is much more recent. Our findings from a growth accounting analysis show that migration has made a negative contribution to labour productivity growth in Spain and a negative but negl…

Economic valuation of knowledge-based capital: an International comparison

Abstract This chapter uses an alternative approach to measuring the knowledge intensity of economies to those commonly uses that are based on the aggregation of industries according to selected indicators such as R&D expenditure or labor force skills. We follow an economic approach rooted in growth accounting methodology, determining the contribution of each individual factor (capital and labor) according to the prices of the services it provides. This methodology is applied to six American countries (the United States, Canada, and four Latin-American countries, namely Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico) and five European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom). T…

Crecimiento económico y productividad en Latinoamérica. El proyecto LA-KLEMS

Antecedentes: El objetivo de este artículo es analizar el crecimiento económico, la productividad y sus determinantes en cinco países de América Latina (Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia y México) durante el periodo 1990-2010. Este análisis se aplica tanto a la economía agregada como a nueve sectores de actividad económica. Metodología: Se utiliza una nueva base de datos, LA-KLEMS, que servirá como herramienta fundamental para la investigación empírica y teórica en el área de crecimiento económico y productividad para América Latina. Las variables se organizan en torno a la metodología de contabilidad del crecimiento, que proporciona un marco conceptual claro para el análisis coherente de …